The Invasion Day – Chapter 8

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 8

No one had taught them what to do when there were a lot of dead bodies around. Most people would be at a loss and avoid the bodies out of fear.

But even if they thought that they would never step into here, they couldn’t bear being trapped in this building anymore and had to pull themselves together to walk through this floor full of corpses.

Tang Xuhai also turned up, but he didn’t come close and just stood at the emergency exit, his whole body leaning on the door with a ridiculously relaxed posture.

What Fu Shiwu was worried about wasn’t whether there was any way to leave this building, for it wasn’t like he was incapable of climbing down from the 3rd floor with a rope. What had him on pins and needles was the crazy man that was still at large, Guan Liangbi.

By this point, Wang Ziping and Liao Ke naturally took up the leadership role. Other people anxiously followed their instructions to cover their heads with the best filtering clothes they could find at home, and remove everything, including the dead bodies, from the rooms that faced the corridor.

People on the 3rd floor had been dead for more than three days, and while the stench of their corpses wasn’t as bad as the 20th floor, their bodies rotted at a much faster rate due to the terribly hot summer. If these corpses had been left here for seven days, nobody would have had the guts to be here!

Thinking of that, the group quickly moved away all the furniture and neatly emptied everything from the rooms.

All accessories outside every apartment of Heavenly Gardens was uniform, and according to regulations, the owner wasn’t allowed to make adjustments without permission. So there was no difference between the windows and balconies of this floor compared with that on the 18th floor. People broke through the glass with a wrench, then swept away the shards and took out a few long ropes made of bed sheets.

It wasn’t that they had no ropes, but they didn’t have enough. With so many people coming and going, what they had right now was simply inadequate.

After being quarantined for a week then facing a water cut, people almost stepped on each other to snatch the sheets and slip to the ground. Thanks to the security nets on the 1st and 2nd floors, it wasn’t that difficult to move up and down.

When almost everyone had gotten out, Fu Shiwu looked down from the window.

The height of the 3rd floor might be only 10 meters, but if one accidentally fell from this distance, he might end up seriously injured and even dead if he landed on the wrong position.

“Scared of heights?” Tang Xuhai said suddenly.

Fu Shiwu was startled. He pushed his glasses up and replied with a cold expression: “I’m not scared of heights.”

“Tsk.” Tang Xuhai didn’t say anything else, then he pushed Fu Shiwu to one side: “Step aside, don’t get in the way.”

Fu Shiwu stood aside and watched him. Tang Xuhai was remarkably calm, as though he was walking on the ground, giving absolutely no impression that he was climbing down from the 3rd floor.

Tang Xuhai held on to the sheets with alternate up and down movements of both hands, while his long legs stomped horizontally and formed a triangle with the wall.

With his hands clenching tightly onto the makeshift-rope and his legs moving rhythmically, he landed smoothly on the ground.

Fu Shiwu watched him do it so easily and unconsciously felt less nervous. He imitated Tang Xuhai’s movements, holding the rope with both hands moving up and down while stomping on the wall. But when he was actually hanging in the air, he realised there was no way this could be easy.

The total weight of his body, which was no less than 60 kilograms, must be supported by his two wrists. Although his feet would share parts of the weight, it was extremely uncomfortable. Fu Shiwu decided to try letting go of his feet and wrapping it around the rope like other people, but then his wrists started shaking badly.

As he sat in the office all year round, it couldn’t be helped that his arms had little strength. Left with no other way, he had to stomp on the wall again and lower himself bit by bit.

When he finally touched the ground, both his hands had turned all red and sore from the pressure.

“You lack exercise.” With a cigarette between his lips, Tang Xuhai hugged his arms and declared his affirmative observation.

Looking at him standing there all leisurely, Fu Shiwu was once again knocked out by their extreme contrast. 

Fu Shiwu tweaked his wrists to release the pain and pushed up the glasses that had dropped below his eyes, then he walked towards the garage, his expression blank.

“Where are you going? Don’t wander off if you have no reason to.” Tang Xuhai held the cigarette between his fingers and breathed out a puff of smoke.

Although he was stung again by Tang Xuhai just now, in view of this bastard saving his life yesterday, Fu Shiwu still halted and said: “I want to make a trip to my workplace.”

Three days ago, it started raining and he started losing contact. Fu Shiwu was worried. He called the director’s homeline but no one picked up, then he tried the cell phone and found it completely turned off.

He had no friends, and the people he met at work these past few years were his only acquaintances.

Tang Xuhai remained silent, then he tagged behind Fu Shiwu in the direction of the underground garage.

Fu Shiwu hesitated for a moment: “What are you doing?” 

Tang Xuhai glanced at him, his pupils a deep shade of black: “Taking a stroll.”

Fu Shiwu was lost for words again.

He told Fu Shiwu to not wander off, then he himself went for a stroll. Isn’t this bastard blatantly looking down on my fighting capability?

But before they reached the garage door, a loud scream came from inside.

Fu Shiwu’s heart sank a bit. He turned around to look at Tang Xuhai, who flicked his finger and threw away the cigarette.

At this point, a group of people were running out from the underground garage, and Guan Liangbi was chasing after them!

“Shit!” Fu Shiwu couldn’t help throwing a curse.

Tang Xuhai gave Fu Shiwu a surprised look, for he thought that this brat would never use swear words.

“That’s why we couldn’t find him in the building. Turns out he’s outside!” Fu Shiwu said with dismay.

“Hm.” Tang Xuhai said as though complimenting him: “He probably climbed directly from the elevator to the underground garage. No one in this building thought of it.” 

The entrance and exit were blocked and the elevator was modified to not give access to the basement, but this didn’t mean that the elevator shaft was also blocked.

“And you didn’t think of it either?” Fu Shiwu looked at him with disbelief. If he could immediately figure out how the other person sneaked out, there was no way he hadn’t thought of it.

“Why should I tell you?” Tang Xuhai raised his head arrogantly and walked towards the crowd.

Fu Shiwu was both angry and annoyed, himself struggling with a lot of thoughts. If he knew, why did he climb down using ropes like them? Shouldn’t he just go through the elevator shaft?

This bastard has issues with his brain!

But before Tang Xuhai came closer, they saw Wang Ziping running against the crowd, a long stick with a fruit knife attached at its top held tightly in his hand. Immediately, Tang Xuhai came to a halt.

To be fair, Guan Liangbi didn’t seem like he was any stronger than Wang Ziping, but his ferocity was completely driven by his madness.

“Hand over that girl! Is she having a fever? You all are still lying to me!” Guan Liangbi shouted, his expression creepily feral.

Fu Shiwu turned around to find that the woman being chased was his neighbour, whose father-in-law was previously sent to the hospital and whose husband had been separated from her due to the quarantine. Today, she had struggled relentlessly to bring herself and her daughter out of the building in order to go looking for the husband.

Her daughter did have a cold and fever in the past two days, but she only felt that it was because of the excessive pressure. She didn’t vomit or have any diarrhea!

The little girl screamed as her legs had completely turned numb from fear, facing the crazy Guan Liangbi directly. She could only move back step by step with her mother guarding closely by her side, and the two stumbled away with much difficulty.

“Go away!” Wang Ziping shouted.

Only then did Fu Shiwu realise what Tang Xuhai meant when he said Wang Ziping must have practiced martial arts before.

Wang Ziping waved the long stick and his posture looked like that of a martial arts fighter, even showing off the aura of a Shaolin monk1Refers to a practitioner of Shaolin Kung Fu, one of the oldest, largest and most famous styles of Kung Fu, which was developed in Shaolin temple, Henan province, China.. His martial arts moves made quite a delightful sight to the eyes, but the real effectiveness could be questioned. That said, against a crazy man like Guan Liangbi and a psycho gang like Camouflage Vest’s, both of whom followed no systematic methods of attacking, at least these moves could scare them away.

In addition, the stick was much longer than the machete in Guan Liangbi’s hand, and Wang Ziping had ingeniously tied a fruit knife on top to turn it into a make-shift spear, which actually made Guan Liangbi unsure of what to do next for a second.

But unlike the mentally sane men of Camouflage Vest’s gang who could still think straight, Guan Liangbi’s madness was aroused even further by Wang Ziping’s fierce attitude. Without even a care about whether the fruit knife would pierce through him, he flicked the machete and slashed towards Wang Ziping.

The moment Wang Ziping was about to be hit, “Whoosh”, a sharp crossbow arrow came flying right at Guan Liangbi’s chest. 

“Ah!!” Guan Liangbi cried out in pain, at which moment Wang Ziping took the opportunity to step back, then he turned the long stick sideways and plunged it into Guan Liangbi’s vitals without hesitation.

The arrow actually didn’t hurt Guan Liangbi severely, but this time, Wang Ziping completely had him dead.

Only when Guan Liangbi slumped down on the ground that the crowd gradually calmed down.

Some people shook with fear as they had just witnessed a murder for the first time, while some people walked over to praise the two men for their courage and flawless cooperation.

Earlier, against those four psychopaths, the two had worked together and kept themselves alive until Tang Xuhai turned up. With this being the second time they had gotten blood on their hands, they were a lot more composed.

Fu Shiwu felt something strange surging in his heart, an uncomfortable feeling that he couldn’t explain.

“Aren’t you going to your workplace? There are more people like Guan Liangbi outside, aren’t you scared?” Unbeknownst to him, Tang Xuhai had walked by his side.

“I am scared.” Fu Shiwu took a deep breath: “But I can’t help but face it. I can’t guarantee that I won’t encounter that kind of dangerous situation again. There’s no point being scared.”

“Oh.” Tang Xuhai let out a smile that Fu Shiwu couldn’t quite comprehend.

As Fu Shiwu climbed into his car, Tang Xuhai pulled open the passenger door.

“What are you doing?” Fu Shiwu frowned.

“Just getting some air, and taking a jug of water on the way.” Tang Xuhai took out a cigarette.

“You shouldn’t smoke in the car.” Fu Shiwu said.

Tang Xuhai’s fingers paused slightly, then he stuffed the cigarette back into the case.

Leaving the community, Fu Shiwu’s Mazda hit the road. It had been only a few days but the whole city felt very empty and desolate. As though a huge battle had taken place, the shops and houses on both sides of the road were now all bearing damages of different degrees. On the roads that used to be clean and tidy just a few days back, there were now heaps of bricks, stones or trash.

The streets were full of armed forces and police officers patrolling in groups of three, the atmosphere suffocatingly loaded in tension. 

“Should we go to the supermarket first… or to my workplace first?” Fu Shiwu turned to ask Tang Xuhai.

“Do you think there is still water in the supermarket at this time?” Tang Xuhai asked as he rested his arm on the window and leaned his head against it. 

Fu Shiwu paused for a moment, then he remembered the panic buying earlier. It was already a week ago.

“There shouldn’t be.” Fu Shiwu said.

“I think your workplace should still have unopened water jugs, let’s go directly to your design institute.” Tang Xuhai said.

Fu Shiwu didn’t say another word and stepped on the accelerator.